In advanced semiconductor manufacturing, airborne contaminants can cause degradation of photoresist layers and optical elements of advanced photolithography systems such as immersion lithography tools, wherein airborne molecules can polymerize when exposed to the very high energy light beams of advanced lithography tools. The resultant polymer can then coat the optics degrading the image quality of the tool and coat the tooling causing degraded alignment tolerances. Additionally contaminant molecules can be adsorbed by the photoresist layer, interfere with the photochemistry and cause photoresist defects. Conventional filters are unable to remove much of these airborne molecules. Similarly, contaminant molecules can exist in the gas streams used for purging and operating of various components of the tool.
Therefore there is a need for an advanced chemical and particulate filter for applications requiring extremely low levels of contaminants in the filtered air and/or gas streams.